


The Final Transcript

by MrProphet



Category: Cthulhu Mythos - H. P. Lovecraft
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-22
Updated: 2017-04-22
Packaged: 2018-10-22 12:45:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10697298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrProphet/pseuds/MrProphet





	The Final Transcript

_What follows is a transcript from a wax cylinder recording found in the private laboratory of Dr Justin Reeth, lecturer in Computer Science, at his home in Arkham, Massachusetts. The cylinder was recovered after the disappearance of Dr Reeth and his sister, Amelia._

“It is now seven days since I conducted my first experiments on the artifact which Dr Lidgate rather fancifully labeled ‘Solomon’s ring’. This artifact has long been held in the archive of Miskatonic University, but never studied in detail. It is sparsely described in Lidgate’s catalogue as ‘a diadem of worked copper, polished to exceptional smoothness and set with a single, large ruby. The copper has been traced with crude pictograms and meaningless sigils, some of which appear to depict angels and spirits of the air. The diadem was found in building B3 on the western side of the palace complex.’

“Meaningless sigils, he called them. That fool. Of course, he was a man of his era; a nineteenth century antiquarian, however brilliant, could never have recognized that his ‘crude pictograms’ were in fact the semiconductive pathways of an extraordinarily sophisticated circuit diagram.

“The true nature of the sigils was first postulated by Dr Sigismund over a decade ago, but his attempts to copy the circuit path all ended in failure. The complexity of the circuit defies recreation with such clumsy tools as we possess. It is only with recent breakthroughs in superconductor studies that I came to realize that the traced lines of the ring are not the pattern of a circuit, but the circuit itself.

“After months of study I was finally ready, a week ago, to connect the ancient circuit to my computer. I expected the results to be gibberish, demanding of years of decoding before we could even begin to guess at the diadem’s purpose. What I got was beyond my wildest dreams.

“Sounds and images unlike any I had ever seen before; fractal worlds opening up before my eyes. It was as though the plane of my computer screen became a vortex of eldritch radiance, and all the everyday world around me seemed to warp towards it. 

“Since that night I have been unable to forget, even for a moment, all that I saw and heard. Even now I can still hear the sounds, still see those fabulous, monstrous images repeating before my eyes. I have, so far, shared these visions with none save Amelia, my sister and constant helpmate of many years, and she finds herself as captivated as I. Indeed, it is in the rapt eyes of my sister that I see my own doom, for I know that I am grown as haggard and wasted as she in the constant yearning to attend to this and nothing else in all the world.

“I fear that we are doomed, but I can at least warn the world not to follow in my footsteps, if I can coax any record of these fabulous occurrences to remain as a caution.

“I have tried all I can to document this phenomenon, but no recording of it will persist in my computer’s memory. All electronic and electromagnetic media seem incapable of retaining any imprint of the effects. My typed notes are swiftly corrupted into a mass of meaningless characters. Even my mind, having once perceived these things, is muddled now where once it was clear.

“My attempts to record the phenomena on DVD and magnetic tape were similarly fruitless, which is why I have borrowed this wax cylinder recorder from the archives. This cylinder is almost full and without any recording of the sounds it ought not to suffer the same corruption. I shall use a second cylinder when I repeat the effect. Should it perchance survive, then perhaps by studying it, someone might…”

_The transcript ends there. A second cylinder had melted in the recorder._


End file.
